Notice how the Democrats are less upset about the collapse of the budget “supercommittee” than the Republicans. This is because the whole deal was stacked in their favor in the first place. The programs hardest hit by these cuts are … you guessed it, defense.
For years, more astute observers have called the Republican Party “the Stupid Party.” They again live up to the label. The poster child for that label is Republican Speaker of the House, John Boehner. Boehner was the cheerleader for this whole deal, as recently as a week ago, insisting, “It will work, it will work.” Of course it didn’t, because the whole notion of a “supercommittee” solving the budget crisis that Congress as a whole refused to solve several months ago was a flawed one.
On top of that, Republicans have more to lose from the failure of the supercommittee than the Democrats. In reality, it’s the country as a whole that has more to lose. I’m not saying that defense cuts are always wrong, and that nothing in defense could ever be cut. But at least defense refers to something that the country actually needs, benefits from, and that only government can do. Defense is about the only thing the federal government does which is actually authorized by our now mostly ignored Constitution. This is precisely why Democrats don’t like it, along with other reasons, such as pacifism and simply hating the military on principle.
If you doubt any of what I’m saying, look at Republicans now scrambling to restore defense cuts and Obama steadfastly refusing to restore them. “No,” Obama says, “If you won’t raise taxes, then forget it.” This was the set-up all along, and Democrats, including Obama, knew it. Critics of Obama complain that he did nothing to take the lead in the whole process. Why should he? It was a bad deal from the start, or a good deal from the point of view of the Democrats and socialists in Congress, and Obama didn’t need to do anything. John Boehner and the other leaders of the Stupid Party did the work for him.
The crocodile tears are amusing. “Despite our inability to bridge the committee’s significant differences, we end this process united in our belief that the nation’s fiscal crisis must be addressed and that we cannot leave it for the next generation to solve,” the panel’s two co-chairs, Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., and Rep. Jeb Hensarling, R-Tex., said in a somber statement.
Socialist liberals like Patty Murray have nothing to be somber about. Taxes will go up no matter what, and spending will never decrease. When the economy does well, tax revenues soar and liberals and socialists in Congress spend it. When the economy falters or collapses, they keep spending anyway, using theoretical Geithner money, or money borrowed against the livelihoods of generations not yet born.
Individuals cannot spend more than they create, and societies cannot either. This is all going to end somewhere, and it’s not going to end well. The end has already begun, and the idiots in Washington are playing it all out right before our eyes. Americans are helpless to do anything about it, because Americans won’t stop it. They can, but they won’t, at least not most of them.
Some are saying it’s a good thing that the supercommittee failed, and that now fiscal responsibility will be forced on Congress. I don’t think so. What you’ll see going forward are probably a restoration of some of the defense cuts, and absolutely no cuts in social programs that Americans want no matter what the cost. No new Republican President in 2013, if there is one, will touch any of those programs or any of our existing spending, including foreign aid and agricultural spending. The economy will continue not to grow and probably even worsen. Taxes will go up when the Bush rates expire, and they’ll probably go up further when Democrats regain control of both houses of Congress, as they probably will in on-and-off chunks as the country continues to go down the tubes and blame shifts between the two parties from one year, to the next.
Associated Press reports: “Late last week, [Republican Speaker] Boehner floated an offer that included $543 billion in spending cuts, fees and other non-tax revenue, as well as $3 billion in tax revenue from closing a special tax break for corporate purchases of private jets. It also assumed $98 billion in reduced interest costs. It was swiftly rejected.”
Of course it was. Democrats are in control of the agenda, whether they have all of the numbers in Congress, or not. They have succeeded in making enough Americans dependent on the welfare state that nothing will ever change. Spending will not go down, and in fact it’s going up no matter what happens with the economy. If the economy ever comes back, tax revenues will be used to spend more, as happened during the booms of the mid-1980s and the late 1990s. If the economy continues to be in the tank, this will be used as an excuse to expand and create new government programs to “help the needy.” The Stupid Party cannot stop this and wouldn’t dare try.
Those of you who support Democrats should remember: These people want you to need them. They need you to be weak in order that they be strong, powerful and influential. Actually, this is true of many Republicans as well, but it’s in the Democratic Party that this attitude and ethos is paramount. If you let them do this to you, then it’s only fair to say that you asked for whatever is coming next.